China conducts first mother-daughter womb transplant

A Chinese woman successfully received a womb donated by her mother after Chinese doctors conducted their first uterus transplant, giving hope to more women struggling with infertility, a hospital in northwest China's Shaanxi Province announced Wednesday.

"This is China's first human womb transplant. Currently, the donor and recipient are in good condition," said Li Xiaokang, deputy head of the Xijing Hospital in Xi'an, where the surgery was performed.

Thirty-eight surgeons took part in the operation, which lasted for around 14 hours.

A robot assisted in removing the mother's uterus before doctors transplanted it into the daughter's body, Chen Biliang, director with the gynecology and obstetrics department of the hospital, told Xinhua.

After the daughter recovers, doctors will transfer frozen fertilized embryos into the new womb, allowing her to carry her own biological child. The embryos were created by the daughter and her husband using in-vitro fertilization prior to the transplant.

The woman, 22, was born without a uterus but has her own ovaries and can make eggs. Her mother is 43.

Doctors prepared for the surgery for two years, practicing the technique on goats, which are believed to share similar wombs with humans, Chen said.

Uterus transplants are not new. In the 1960s, Britain and the United States began to experiment with uterus transplants on animals.

In 2000, the world's first human womb transplant took place on a 26-year-old woman in Saudi Arabia. The transplanted uterus failed after three months and had to be removed.

In 2011, doctors successfully performed a uterus transplant on a woman in Turkey. Two years later, nine women in Sweden had successfully received transplanted wombs donated by relatives.

However, public opinion on human womb transplants is divided.

"Womb transplants can provide an alternative for women unable to have their own children due to problems," said Chen, adding that using a surrogate to carry a pregnancy is not allowed in China.

In 2001, China's health authorities issued a regulation to ban the practice in order to reduce the huge black market for underground surrogacy.

According to Chen, eight percent of infertility in women is caused by womb problems. It is estimated that 100,000 to 120,000 girls in China are born without a functional vagina or uterus each year.

But critics argued that it is a complicated and risky surgery. "How do you connect complex blood vessels? Will the anti-rejection drugs harm a fetus?" user "bushiyongqi" asked on microblog Sina Weibo.

Others pointed out that womb transplants, which are not aimed at saving life but improving the quality of it, are not worth the risk.

With the successful transplant in China, some people have called for men to receive such transplants to replace women in giving birth.

"It is good news for women if their husbands can give birth. Men should experience the pain and happiness of child birth, so they can better understand their wives," user "crosshands" commented on her Weibo account.

Chen said men have visited him to ask about similar gender reassignment surgeries in recent years.

"It could be possible to transfer a womb into a man's body after surgery and drug therapy," she said.

Currently, China has no laws or regulation on womb transplants for men.

"Undoubtedly it will raise more healthy, ethical and legal concerns," said Liu Liang, an expert on medical ethics in Xijing hospital.